The term warbird, as used within the Romulan Empire, dates back as far as 2154, as the Romulan drone-ship was a modified warbird; this, however, was most likely a warbird of a much earlier design than that of the D'deridex-class. The term was known to Starfleet as early as the 2344 encounter with the USS Enterprise-C. It is, however, unclear if this specifically refers to the D'deridex-class design or that of yet another unknown warbird class.

The word in the Romulan language apparently is "D'deridex", as what Data refers to in the episode "Tin Man" as a "D'deridex class cruiser" is also referred to as a "warbird class starship" by Picard in "The Defector".

Prior to Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek Nemesis, "warbird" or "Romulan warbird" were used exclusively to refer to D'deridex-class starships. Brannon Braga has mentioned that the use of the term "warbird" to describe Klingon ships in "Broken Bow" was a mistake, implying that the production team only wished Romulan ships to be identified as warbirds.